PICTURE THIS  | Daily Mail Online

CUT & DRY   

by Carolyn Dunster (Laurence King £17.99)

Floral designer Carolyn Dunster loved fresh flowers as a child but disliked that ‘once picked, their beauty was fleeting’. In this inspiring book, Dunster offers a more sustainable alternative: dried flowers. 

She recommends the best plants to use (marigolds, hydrangeas and bunny tails) and gives ingenious tips. 

Sand drying, for example, a technique favoured by the Ancient Egyptians, preserves the perfume. Blasting the arrangement with hair spray stops any fluffy grasses shedding. The bouquets may be dry — but this exhaustive guide is anything but.